Becoming an Animal Consultant
Animal Consultants
International (ACI) exists to maximize the
international accessibility
of people with specialized skills or
qualifications who wish to use their skills to assist
animal advocacy campaigns.
Animal Consultants need to:
1. Be able to offer specialized
skills or qualifications for the benefit of animal protection campaigns
internationally. For example, some are
veterinarians, biologists, research scientists, or hold post-graduate
qualifications in animal welfare science. Others are
accountants, educators, graphic designers and
lawyers.
2. Be available for consulting. Even if
you're unable to provide
detailed assistance on a particular occasion, you are requested and expected to respond promptly to
any
inquiries. Reliable internet and telephone access
are essential.
To become an Animal Consultant:
Please submit the following to
info@animalconsultants.org, with 'ACI
Application' in
the subject line:
1. A summarized (1,000 word maximum)
version of your curriculum vitae or profile, emphasizing
any animal
protection advocacy to date.
Please remove
all
formatting other than headings.
As this may be posted on the internet, for the protection of yourself
and your referees, please do not include any
contact details or identifying details for
your referees. Messages will be forwarded to you. You are encouraged to
close with “Referees and examples of published work are available on
request,” or similar, if appropriate.
2. A 50 word (maximum) summary including your full professional title, for applicable
introductory pages, written in the third person. Again, please
remove all formatting.
3. A clear head and shoulders photograph (.JPG format, 50kb max.). The most visible photos have a light-colored
background.
4. Email and telephone contacts at which you can be reliably reached
long-term. These will remain strictly confidential, will not be posted on
our website, and will not be released to organizations other than potential
employers, without your permission. Please inform us if these details ever
change. Email will primarily be used to contact you.
Website updates are made on or soon after the first of
each month.
Contracts
While the financial and other advantages of
retaining
specialist
consultants, instead of permanent employees, to carry out various projects
and campaigns, are potentially great, animal consultancy is a
new concept for most of the animal protection movement.
Few paid contracts are awarded.
However, whether or not you receive paid contracts,
we hope and expect that you will provide free advice and assistance
for inquiries not requiring large amounts of your time.
Paid contracts and rates are arranged privately between consultants and
employers; however model contracts are available, along with advice on
rates.
Outreach
We send an annual media release advertising our services to nearly 500 animal protection organizations and 50 related journals within the US, Europe, Australasia and internationally.
We also seek other outreach opportunities, such as:
1. Talks and displays at venues such as regional animal
protection conferences.
2. Links and banners on appropriate websites.
3. Advertising on appropriate email lists, such as AR-News.
Consultants are encouraged to mention Animal Consultants International and
www.AnimalConsultants.org
in their own talks and publications.
Our growth benefits the animals, our consultants, and the animal protection
movement worldwide, through the facilitation of
international skill-sharing. If you know of a good outreach opportunity,
please email us. Donations for journal advertising would also be greatly
appreciated if you are interested in supporting this
worthy endeavour.
ACI email list
On joining you will automatically be subscribed to the ACI email list, which
will allow you to exchange tips on potential employers and projects,
and advice, with other professional animal
consultants around the world. ACI also exists to encourage the participation
in animal protection campaigns of people with exceptional ability to make a
difference. Consequently, each month we may select a particularly important
issue and post an associated action alert to our email list, to give our
consultants the opportunity to contribute.